Air cleaner with dual air intake



J. B. SEBOK 4 Sheets-Sheet l EYE TL'TZZLET dose 01L :5. 561m AIR CLEANERWITH DUAL AIR INTAKE April 9, 1957 Filed Nov. 15, 1952 April 9, 1957 J.B. SEBOK AIR CLEANER WITH DUAL AIR INTAKE 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov.15, 1952 I17 FE 1121: Jase 01L B. Sebok April 9, 1957 Filed NOV. 15,1952 J. B. SEBOK 2,788,086

- AIR CLEANER WITH DUAL AIR INTAKE 4 Shee cS-Sheet 3 Q a I 2 Q Q H q w m{L Q I w In I} I 8 U r bug N ETFE'IfifET dime 0h B. Seboi April 9, 1957J. B. SEBOK AIR CLEANER WITH DUAL AIR INTAKE 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Nov.15, 1952 N N Joseph B. 56601? n n United States Patent AIR CLEANER WITHDUAL AIR INTAKE Joseph B. Sebok, Detroit, 'Mich., assignor to HoudailleIndustries, Inc Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Michigan ApplicationNovember 15, 1952, Serial No. 320,645 9 Claims. (Cl. 183-44) Thisinvention relates to-improvements inan air cleaner with dual air intake,andmore particularly to a combination .air cleansing and intakesilencing unit equipped with two air intakes to provide admission foreither warm or cold air, or a combination of both, such intakes be- :ingeither manually or automatically controlled as may 'be desired,although'the invention may have other uses and purposes as will beapparent to one skilled in the art.

In connection with automotive vehicles, difiiculty has been experiencedin the past in preventing the engine dying .at idle speed in coldweather due to so-called icing of the carburetor. Essentially there is asmall hole in the throttle valve of a carburetor, and because of highhumidity in the air or other reasons, ice frequentlyforrns adjacent thathole in the throttle valve thereby partially or :fully .obstructingit sothat the engine :receives an insutiicient amount of fuel when at idlespeed and so will mostatic temperature responsive control.

With the foregoing in mind, it is an important-object of the instantinvention to provide an air cleaner and .silencingunit shrouded for thepurpose of admitting air from two separate sources, and whereinvibration and rattling is eliminated by virtue of maintaining the top ofthe shroud under tension.

Also a feature of the invention is to provide an air cleaner andsilencing unit with the shroud defining an intake chamber from twosources :of air supply, and wherein both the shroud and the filteringmeans are removable from the remainder of the structure, rattling andvibration being eliminated by maintaining both the top of the aircleanerand the top of the shroud under tension during operation.

Still another feature of the invention resides in the provision of anair cleaner and intake silencer unit shrouded to receive-air from twodifferent sources, and wherein the upper section of the air cleaner andsilencer .unit is removable alone, without disturbing the mounting ofthe lowersection and the shroud.

Yet another object of this invention is the provision of a shrouded aircleaner and silencer unit, wherein the shroud is fixed to the lowercasing section of the unit, an'dthe upper section is individually andseparatelyremovable.

It is also a feature of this invention to provide a shrouded air cleanerand intake silencer unit, so arranged that 'the shroud not onlyfunctions as a distribution means for'air obtained from differentsources, but also 2,788,086 Patented Apr. 9, 1957 :for noises developedin the internal combustion engine with which the structure isassociated.

Still another feature of the invention resides in the provision of ashrouded air cleaner and silencing unit, in which one portion of thestructure is a combined shroud and silencing chamber operating upon theresonator principle.

Still a further feature of the invention resides in the provision of ashrouded air cleaner and silencing unit, in which there is a silencingor attenuating chamber on each side of the air cleansing means; that is,sound waves traveling reversely through the unit will be subjected to anattenuating chamber before reaching the means.

It is still a further feature of the invention to provide a shrouded aircleaner and silencer unit in which incoming air passes through a soundattenuating chamber, whereby the entire structure may be made ofrelatively small size.

While some of the more salient features, characteristics and advantagesof the instant invention have been above pointed out, others will becomeapparent from the following disclosures, taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a part side elevational, part central vertical sectionalview, with parts shown in elevation, of a shrouded air cleaning andsilencing unit embodying prin ciples of the instant invention, andwherein the shroud and upper section of the cleaning and silencing unitare separately removable;

Figure 2 is a bottom plan view of the structure of Fig. 1;

Figure 3 is a view similar in character to Fig. 1, namely a partelevational and part central vertical sectional View of a shrouded aircleaning and silencing unit, embodying principles of the instantinvention but showing a different form of construction, wherein theshroud is aifixed to the lower casing section, and the upper casingsection of the unit is alone removable;

Figure 4 is a bottom plan view of the structure of Fig. 3;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary central vertical sectional view of a shroudedair cleaning and silencing unit, parts being shown in elevation, andillustrating -a still different 'form of structure; and

an upper casing section generally indicated by numeral 2, and a shroudgenerally indicated by numeral 3.

The lower casing section embodies an enlarged outlet conduit 4,centrally disposed, and having at its lower end'a gasket seat and gasketas indicated at 5 for disposition on a flange or platform of acarburetor. Connected to this conduit 4 is an outer casing wall 6 whichextends upwardly at the side, and turns inwardly to join :a cylindricalportion of an inside partition 7. The outer wall 6 of the lower casingsection is distorted at the bottom in order to adjust the volume thereofsince this casing encloses a sound attenuating chamber Operating on theresonator principle. The partition 7 is curvate at the bottom to providea sump 8 for cleansing liquid, and then is secured to an upstandingcylindrical member 9 which extends inwardly at the top and thendownwardly as at 10 to provide an outlet for cleaned air. It will'benoted that the outlet nozzle 10 is concentric with but spaced from theopening in the top of the conduit 4 so "as to provide a passage '11through which sound waves the cab of the vehicle.

may enter the relatively large attenuating chamber 11a between thepartition 7 and the casing wall 6. This attenuating chamber is adjustedas to inside volume for the attenuation of the fundamental toneemanating from the internal combustion engine through the carburetorwith which the cleaner and silencing unit is associated.

Between the partition 7 and the inner partition or wall 9 is a seat fora gasket 12 upon which the upper casing section seats. This upper casingsection 2 embodies a cover 13, a depending filter shell 14, and a filtermass 15 is carried in the filter holding shell. The filter holding shellis provided with enlarged openings in the bottom thereof, and dependingfrom the shell is a peaked baffle 16 disposed Over the (liquid in thesump 8.

The shroud 3 comprises a cover 17 and a side wall or skirt 18 whichintimately engages the upper portion of the lower casing section 1, thisshroud fully enclosing the exposed portion of the upper casing section.The shroud, as best seen in Fig. 2, is provided with a pair of inletconduits 19 and 20 in which dampers or valves 21 and 22, respectively,are mounted on the same common shaft 23. The two valves or controlelements are out-ofphase, preferably 90, and rotate in unison, so thatthe eflective area of both inlets 19 and 20 is never greater than thearea of one of these inlet-s, because if one of the valves is fullyopen, the other is fully closed and vice versa, with proportionateopening of each valve in between the fully open and fully closedpositions. One of the inlets is connected to a source of warm air whichmight be from the engine compartment, and the other is connected to asource of cool air, which might be in automatically by thermostatic ortemperature responsive means, or controlled manually as may be mostdesired. In any event, all the incoming air may be cool, all of it maybe warm, or there may be a predetermined mixture of warm and cool air.

The separable parts of the structure are held together by means of abolt 24 which would be secured in the upper portion of a carburetor, notshown in the drawings. The upper casing section is telescoped inside thelower section upon the gasket 12, having an enlarged aperture 25 in thecover 13 thereof. Outside this aperture a wing nut 26 may be tighteneddown on the bolt, a washer being used if so desired, and it will benoted that the tightening of the wing nut places the center portion ofthe cover 13 under tension, thereby eliminating vibration and rattling.The belt extends upwardly through the cover 17 of the shroud and thiscover has an enlarged opening 27 around the bolt, and when a wing nut 28is tightened down, the cover of the shroud is also placed under tensionso as to eliminate rattling and vibration. The enlarged apertures 25 and27 also serve another function, namely the easy and ready positioning ofthe upper casing section and shroud over the bolt, in case the bolt isdisposed at a slightly oif angle for any reason.

In operation, incoming air enters through one or the other or both ofthe inlets 19 and 20, passes downwardly through the space 29 between thepartitions 7 in the lower section and the filter holding shell 14 in theupper section, mingles with the liquid in the sump, passes upwardlythrough the filter mass 15, and descends into the interior of theconduit 4 and from there into the carburetor. Noise emanating from theengine and returning in the reverse direction will be silenced as to thefundamental tone byvirtue of the sound waves entering through the port11 into the attenuating chamber 11a. However, a higher pitched sound,such as a harmonic or a second fundamental tone, will also be attenuatedby passing rearwardly through the filter mass and entering the chamberdefined by the shroud, this chamber being efiective to establishmaterial silencing on the resonator principle, especially by virtue ofthe fact that the area at the inlet to the chamber is only equivalent toone of the inlets 19 or 20 at any time. The chamber inside the shroudmay also be tuned by varying the amount of The vailves may be controlledvolume or size of the shroud, and by changing the size of the air inlettubes 19 or 26. Thus, a silencing chamber is provided on each side ofthe filtering means. The entire structure is thereby kept as compact aspossible, the shroud performing the dual function of establishing asecondary silencing chamber, as well as establishing a means foradmitting warm or cold air.

The structure seen in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings is different to theextent that it is made for connection to a carburetor air intake horn,rather than actually housing the carburetor, and the upper casingsection may be at once removed, since the shroud is fixed to the lowercasing section.

In this construction, there is a lower casing section 30 which togetherwith a partition 31, of the same character as the aforesaid partition 7,houses a sound attenuating chamber 32. Centrally of the bottom, a lowercasing section 30 is connected to a conduit 33 equipped with means forattachment to a carburetor air intake horn. The partition 31 has itscentral portion connected to a clean air outlet conduit 34 which isconcentric with but of less diameter than the conduit 33 so as to leavea space therebetween through which sound waves may enter the attenuatingchamber 32. A Z-bar 35 in this outlet conduit 34 has secured thereto thelower end of an attaching bolt 36.

On the upper portion of the lower casing section is a shroud 37 which ispermanently aflixed to the lower casing section. The shroud is ofgreater diameter than the lower casing section, and extends thereaboveterminating centrally in its cover at a relatively large aperturedefined by a flange or seat 38 which may carry a gasket if so desired.As seen best in Fig. 4, the shroud is provided with a pair of inletconduits 39 and 40 having valves 41 and 42, respectively therein anddisposed out-ofphase on a common shaft 43. These valves function in thesame manner as the valves 21 and 22 above described in connection withFigs. 1 and 2.

The upper casing section 44 is substantially the same as that shown inFig. l, and includes a filter holding shell, the filter mass 45, abafiie 46 extending therebelow over the liquid sump defined by thepartition 31, and a cover 47. The cover 47 where it joins the filterholding shell is outwardly flanged so that this casing section will seatupon the flange 38 of the shroud as clearly seen in Fig. 3. Theattaching bolt 36 extends upwardly through the cover 47, and the uppercasing section is held in place by a wing nut 48. The operation of thestructure shown in Figs. 3 and 4 is substantially the same as thatdescribed in connection with Figs. 1 and 2. However, in this instance,the upper casing section may be immediately removed by detaching thesingle thumb nut 48, and the shroud remains afiixed to the lower casingsection.

In Figs. 5 and 6 I have shown what may be the preferred form ofconstruction. Here, we have a lower casing section 49 connectedcentrally at the bottom with an inwardly extending conduit 50 flanged atthe lower end and provided with a gasket 51 to seat on a platform of acarburetor, the conduit 50 housing the major portion of the carburetor,which is not shown in the drawings.

This lower casing section 49 is lock seamed so as to be substantiallyintegral with a shroud 52 the cover of which has a relatively largeopening therein defined by a formation designed to function as a seatfor a gasket 53. Inside the shroud is a partition having a cylindricalupstanding wall 54 and a horizontal irregular portion 55 which providesa sump for cleansing liquid, this part 55 extending over and beingsecured to the aforesaid conduit 50. A horizontal annular partition 56separates the interior of the shroud or chamber 57 from the chamber 58in the lower casing section 49, both of which chambers function as soundattenuators. It will be noted that the cylindrical partition 54 exceptfor a relatively small inlet conduit 59 extends clear to the top of theshroud thus closing off the region inside the partition 54 except forthat inlet opening.

Sound =waves may enter the large chamber 58, which is ports is a tuningtube 61, which may be varied in length to alter the tuning of thesilencing chamber.

The upper casing section embodies a cover 62 from which'depends a filterholding shell 63 containing a suitable filtering element 64, and on theunderside of this 'filter holding shell is secured a bafile'65 whichextends over the aforesaid liquid sump. An inwardly slopingsubstantially conical tube 66 inside the filter holding shell afiords adischarge for cleaned air after this air is passed through the filterelement, and the air descends into the conduit 50 where it may enter thecarburetor. A securing bolt 67, the lower end of which is preferablyscrew threaded into the carburetor extends upwardly through an enlargedaperture in the top 62 of the upper casing section, and the upper casingsection may be held tightly in position by a wing nut 68 or theequivalent, it being noted that the tightening of the wing nut places acentral portion of the cover of the upper casing section under tensionto eliminate rattling and vibration.

Leading into the shroud 52 at the side opposite the inlet conduit 59 tothe air cleaning means proper, is a pair of inlet conduits 69 and 70each of which is provided with a valve 71 and 72, respectively, thevalves being mounted upon a common shaft 73, as above explained inconnection with the other modifications.

It will also be noted that in connection with the illustrated structure,the upper casing section carrying the filter element is eccentricallydisposed in relation to the shroud, which extends more to one side thanthe other in order to provide adequate volume for the attenuatingchamber 57.

In operation of this modification of the invention, cold air, warm air,or a mixture of both enters the conduit 69 and 70, circles the partition54 on both sides thereof, and then enters the inlet conduit 59 todescend between the filter holding shell 63 and the partition 54, passover the liquid in the sump, pass upwardly through the filter mass, andthen descend into the conduit 50. The fundamental noise developed by theengine will be neutralized by virtue of its sound waves entering theattenuating chamber 58 through the ports 60. The secondary fundamentaltone of the engine will be neutralized by the sound waves passingbackwardly through the filter mass, and entering the attenuating chamber57 inside the shroud, this chamber functioning as an attenuatingchamber, particularly by virtue of the fact that only the area of one ofthe inlet conduits 69 or 70 can be effective at any time.

Certain higher pitched and shorter wave length sound waves may also beneutralized inside the partition 54, by virtue of the relatively smallsize of the inlet 59 thereto. Thus, there is provided attenuatingchambers on both sides of the filter element, and the series arrangementof attenuating chambers on one side of that element. Consequently, thismodification is more effective as a sound attenuating arrangement thaneither of the modifications above described.

It will be understood that modifications and variations may be etfectedwithout departing from the scope of the novel concepts of the presentinvention.

I claim as my invention:

1. In an air cleaner and silencing unit, a casing having an inlet and anoutlet, air cleansing means in the casing in the path of air travelingfrom the inlet to the outlet, said casing having an attenuating chamberin communication with the path of the air traveling between thecleansing means and the outlet, and a shroud over a part of said casingand enclosing said inlet, a second attenuating chamber defined by saidshroud and said casing, and said shroud having an air inlet theretospaced from said casing inlet.

2. In an air cleaner and silencing unit, a casing having an inlet and anoutlet, air cleansing means in the casing in the path of air travellingfrom the inlet to the outlet,

said casing having an attenuating chamber in communication with the pathof the air travelling between the cleansing means and the outlet, and ashroud sealed over a part of said casing and enclosing said inlet, asecond chamber defined by said shroud and said casing and located on theopposite side of said air cleansing means from said first attenuatingchamber, said shroud having a relatively small air inlet opening spacedfrom said casing inlet thereby permitting said second chamber toeffectively function as a second attenuating chamber.

3. In an air cleaner, a casing having an inlet and an outlet, meansdefining a path of travel for air from the inlet to the outlet, aircleansing means in said path having an intake side and an outlet side, ashroud enclosing a part of said casing and said inlet, said shroudhaving a pair of inlet openings therein for air from different sources,out-of-phase control means for the shroud inlet openings whereby theeffective area of these openings is not greater than the area of one ofthem at any time, a sound attenuating chamber enclosed by said shroudand being on the intake side of said cleansing means, and means in saidcasing defining another sound attenuating chamber on the outlet side ofsaid cleansing means.

4. In an air cleaning and silencing unit, a lower casing section havingan air outlet and housing an attenuating chamber therein, an uppercasing section, filter means in said upper section, a shroud enclosingthe upper casing section and having an air inlet, and mounting means forremovably connecting said sections and said shroud, said shroud and saidupper section being separably removable from the lower section.

5. In an air cleaning and silencing unit, a lower casing section havingan air outlet and housing an attenuating chamber therein, an uppercasing section, filter means in said upper section, a shroud fixed tosaid lower section and enclosing the upper section, said shroud havingan opening therein to receive the upper section, and mounting means toremovably hold said upper section in position.

6. In an air cleaning and silencing unit, a lower casing section havingan air outlet and housing an attenuating chamber therein, an uppercasing section, filter means in said upper section, a shroud fixed tosaid lower section and enclosing the upper section, said shroud havingan opening therein to receive the upper section, gasket means aroundsaid opening, a flange on said upper section to seat on said gasketmeans, and mounting means to removably hold the upper section inoperative position in said shroud.

7. In an air cleaning and silencing unit, a casing structure including alower casing part, a conduit therein, partition means defining anattenuating chamber around said conduit, a shroud over the top of saidcasing part, a removable upper casing section extending through saidshroud, filter means in said upper casing section, partition meansbetween the first said partition means and the top of said shroud, thelast said partition means having a relatively small air inlet therein,and said shroud having an air inlet in the side opposite the first saidinlet.

8. In an air cleaning and silencing unit, a casing structure including alower casing part, a conduit therein, partition means defining anattenuating chamber around said conduit, a shroud over the top of saidcasing part, partition means defining a second attenuating chamber insaid shroud, said shroud having an opening in the top thereof insidesaid other partition means, a filter carrying casing section insertablethrough said opening in spaced relationship to said other partitionmeans, said other partition means having a relatively small openingtherethrough, and said shroud having a relatively small 7 air inletopening at a point remote from the opening in said other partitionmeans.

9. In an air cleaning unit, a lower casing section having an outlet forcleaned air, an upper casing section separable from the lower sectionand defining with said lower section an inlet path for air, filter meansin said upper section, an upstanding securing element, said uppersection having an enlarged opening in the top thereof, means external ofsaid top engageable With said element to hold said top under tension andconnect said casing sections, a shroud over said upper section andhaving an aperture therein through which said element projects, and asecond means external of the shroud engageable with said element to holdthe shroud in place with its top also under tension.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSBenjamin Apr. 10, Acton May 29, Kamrath Ian. 10, Rohm June 15, DreznesSept. 28,

FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain Jan. 1, France May 21, France Sept. 26,France June 24,

